Their favorite haunt is Broadway.
Hundreds of late stage legends from Judy Garland to Bob Fosse are reportedly still roaming Broadway — prompting today’s actors to weave quirky traditions into their daily routines to try to appease Midtown’s Theater District gods, a longtime tour guide told The Post.
At the New Amsterdam Theater on West 42nd Street, home to the long-running “The Lion King,” workers greet large portraits of Olive Thomas — a former Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl whose ghost is said to be among the most active on Broadway — each day to keep her mischief at bay, Broadway historian and guide Jeff Dobbins said.
One of the hit show’s casts even held a ceremony to “apologize” to Thomas in the early 2000s after its turntable operating a “Pride Rock” set piece mysteriously broke and cancelled a performance, he said.
“The management of the New Amsterdam is quite upfront: like, ‘Yeah, this is a factor in this theater, and don’t be surprised if you encounter an unexplained circumstance,’ ” said Dobbins, who used to manage the Lyric Theater a block away.
“It’s an industry that’s coexisting with all these spirits,” he said. “[Broadway workers] know that’s a part of working with that theater.
“I would say as a whole, almost every theater has its spirits and its unusual occurrences.”
Dobbins also listed missing props, flashing lights and locking doors as commonplace happenings in Big Apple theaters attributed to otherworldly phenomena.
While working as a tour guide at the New Amsterdam Theater in the early 2000s, the historian caught his own glimpse of Thomas “pretty clearly” in a full-length mirror, he said.
“I saw her image in the mirror, looking right at me – and by the way, not in a malevolent way at all,” he said. “[It was] in a sort of a mischievous way: She only appears to men, and she’s flirty. People have heard her say, ‘Hiya fella!’ and blow a kiss before disappearing.”
While the New Amsterdam has one of the most gregarious ghosts, Dobbins noted that the Palace Theatre is recognized by many as the most haunted.
The 1910s-era former vaudeville house is where up to 100 ghosts reside, according to local theater experts.
Some of the Palace’s most famous reported otherworldly denizens include Garland, who is known to hum in the wings, as well as a famed acrobat who died during a tight-rope performance in its early days.
Dobbins said his business is brisk despite an overall reported decline in theater tourism — with one of his recent Lower Manhattan ghost jaunts selling out so quickly that he had to “double” the number of tour dates.
“There seems to be a fascination with ghost tours and spirits and the history of all of this,” he said, adding that global hits such as “Hamilton” have renewed interest in both musical theater and history among a new generation of fans.
The tour guide said the macabre stories weaved into his regular Broadway tours — which he’s led since the late ’90s — always get audiences to “really perk up.
“People who take Broadway tours are most fascinated with what happens behind the curtains and history,” he said, adding tour groups consistently inquire about the spirits haunting New York’s famous theaters.
“People from Broadway past are still an element on Broadway,” he said, “Often the theater staff, when you move into a theater, they’ll be the ones … to say, ‘listen, don’t be surprised if over in this corner, something happens.’”
At the Belasco Theater, performers say a glimpse of the ghost of “Bishop of Broadway” David Belasco, a famed old producer and writer, in his private box on opening night is a sign of a Broadway hit.
Other late legends, such as singer Ethel Merman at the Imperial Theatre and choreographer Fosse at The Lyceum, have been rumored to haunt the respective stages – and for a good reason, Dobbins said.
“Some people are so in love with New York that they just refuse to leave,” he said. “The same thing with Broadway, with theater. Their lives are built around the theater, so that’s where they want to be.
“That’s where their most consequential moment in their life was, so they returned to the theater. Some say they might even be protecting them.”
The post Broadway’s most haunted theaters revealed – including one rumored to house dozens of ghosts appeared first on New York Post.
